'Compromise legislation' provides for some amount
of confidentiality in presidential search process

By Jared Blank

Two bills passed by the state legislature last week will allow
greater privacy during the search process for the leaders of
Michigan's public universities.

Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison says that
the University is basically pleased with the two bills. One amends
the Open Meetings Act and the other amends the Michigan Freedom of
Information Act.

"It's compromise legislation," he says. "It's far from perfect,
but it's a huge step forward. It provides two chief benefits for the
University. First, it essentially codifies the pattern which we used
in the last presidential search, with a confidential first stage and
a public second stage. Second, it provides guidelines for future
searches. Part of the difficulty with our past search was that there
were no guidelines."

Under the new rules, there can be an advisory committee comprised
of faculty, students, alumni, members of the administration and
community members who will handle the initial screening of candidates
in private. The committee also can include members of the Board of
Regents. However, none of the groups represented on the committee can
comprise a majority of the committee nor can a quorum of the Regents
serve on the committee.

In the University's presidential search this year, Regents were
barred from sitting on the advisory committee.

The committee may present five finalists to the Board of Regents,
but the final selection of the president may not be made until at
least 30 days until after the five finalists are announced.
Individual universities will decide whether to announce the list of
names considered by the advisory committee. Lee Bollinger's selection
as president was announced 21 days after the disclosure of the four
finalists.

All deliberations and interviews with the five finalists will be
conducted in public. However, the legislation allows the Regents to
examine recommendations and references that are not required to be
made public.

Universities found to be in violation of the law are subject to a
civil fine of up to $500,000.